Daniil Medvedev has reacted to being described as “one of the most unfair” tennis players in the world by Alexander Zverev by mocking his German rival.
World number four Medvedev defeated Zverev at the Monte Carlo Masters this week in a thrilling three-setter, fighting back from dropping the first set to win 3-6 7-5 7-6 (9-7).
Zverev, who is still in the early stages of his comeback from a major knee injury, was understandably frustrated at not being able to finish off his opponent and detonated a bomb in a post-match interview.
The 25-year-old, who also lost to Medvedev in three tight sets at Indian Wells last month, hit out at the Russian’s gamesmanship, which included several toilet breaks and one bizarre moment when he removed one of the net posts.
“He is one of the most unfair players we have in the world,” Zverev declared. “He tries to do everything when he’s behind. He did it in Indian Wells, he did it here.”
Zverev went on to say his rivalry with Medvedev would never be enjoyed by tennis fans like the one between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal because of the lack of sportsmanship.
“I take fairness and sportsmanship very, very seriously and unfortunately he has none of that,” Zverev said.
“The rivalry we have is incredible. We’ve played each other so many times, but one of the reasons why Roger and Rafa were so popular and the rivalry was appreciated all over the world was because they were always fair to each other.
“Unfortunately you can’t say that about him and that’s just a real shame for me as an athlete.”
Medvedev progressed to the quarterfinals where he was soundly beaten by Holger Rune.
He appeared to reference Zverev’s comments while shaking hands with the Dane, saying “you played unfair”.
Medvedev was later asked about what Zverev had to say and told the German to “look in the mirror”.
“First, I do think that honestly with probably 90 players on tour I’m great friends,” he said.
“So I usually feel bad when something on court happens and let’s say I’m not fair play, because I know sometimes I’m not.”
“(But Zverev) is living in his own world. I already had like five players in the locker room coming to me and saying, ‘Come on, Daniil, why are you so unfair?’,” Medvedev said while smiling.
“When he loses, we can find maybe 25 interview of him where he does say some strange things … when he says someone is not fair play, you’re like, OK great. Look at yourself in the mirror.”
Medvedev then promised to pay Zverev a visit in the locker room if he keeps up his verbal attacks.
“It doesn’t disappoint me at all, but again, if in one week he’s going to continue saying, well, I’m going to come to him in the locker room and say ‘let’s discuss what’s wrong’,” Medvedev said.
“Tell me, I’m gonna tell you, and maybe we never gonna speak again and we are gonna be enemies or whatever. But at this moment I don’t care much.”
Medvedev’s run of five successive finals came to a halt as the former world number one slipped to a 6-3 6-4 loss to Danish rising star Rune.
Medvedev won his fourth title in five events at the Miami Masters earlier this month but has still never won an ATP clay-court tournament.
World number nine Rune controlled the first ever meeting between the two, breaking once in the first set and twice in the second.
The 19-year-old, who reached the French Open quarter-finals last year, is hunting his first title of the season and will next play Jannik Sinner.
Sinner cruised to a 6-2 6-2 victory over fellow Italian youngster Musetti who failed to back up his brilliant performance against Novak Djokovic.
The 21-year-old Sinner has reached the semi-finals at all three Masters events so far this year.
Andrey Rublev, who lost to Tsitsipas in the 2021 final, earlier booked his place in the other semi-finals with a 6-1 7-6 (7-5) win over German qualifier Jan-Lennard Struff.
Rublev will meet American Taylor Fritz, who recorded a surprise victory over tournament favourite Stefanos Tsitsipas.
— with AFP